Orient Express Racing Team, from a dream to reality

As we say a sad but fond ‘au revoir’ to the enigmatic French Challenger for the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup, there’s a very strong feeling that although this may be the end in 2024, it is very much the start of something special for the French syndicate. The team have won a new legion of fans from around the world with the way they have approached this campaign, and they leave the competition very much with their heads high and a keen eye on the future.

From the start, the very first race in Vilanova i La Geltrú, Orient Express Racing were impressive, winning a race where the fleet finished in displacement mode, through grit, determination and some exceptional wind whispering and tactical skills. As a nation, France is peerless in its sailing history, with its sailors winning in just about every discipline. The America’s Cup though, remains a gap in the nation’s palmarès.

But it is certainly not for a want of trying. The history of France at the highest Cup level stretches back to the mercurial Baron Bich in the late 1960’s, before the first official challenge in 1970. A further twelve challenges since then have seen the French come close to success but ultimately fall short. So it’s with a sense of determination that syndicate bosses Stephan Kandler and Bruno Dubois are attempting to re-write the history books with a fabulous chapter on French success.

Recognising that all the key components were in place in the outstanding French boat-building and marine industry, the Orient Express Racing Team was formed. And as Bruno Dubois said at launch: “In France, there is a pool of technical, technological, and sailing talent that our competitors have identified over the years and used for their campaigns.

“Stephan and I want to bring together as many of these skills as possible to form a strong French team. Thanks to the support of ACCOR Group and the commitment of Orient Express, we have assembled a college of experts to steer the group: Benjamin Muyl in Design, Antoine Carraz in Technical, Franck Cammas in Performance, and a sailing team which will be led by Quentin Delapierre.”

After the team received their AC40 in mid-August 2023, sailing started immediately and the Delapierre’s core sailing squad featured his talented co-helm Kevin Peponnet and the skills of Jason Saunders and Mathieu Vandame. The performance trajectory that these four embarked on was impressive, whilst behind the scenes it was all systems go to create the first ever French AC75.

As Kandler explained: "Our starting point was to ensure that the French team was competitive. Beyond the budget that we had to put together, we very quickly entered discussions with the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand, with whom we have had a very good relationship since the first K-Challenge campaign in 2003. The resulting technological partnership included a latest generation design package to work from and we will build our own AC75 ‘Made in France.’ This partnership allows us to compete on equal terms with the other challengers. This is a great precedent in the history of a French challenge."

Dubois detailed the process at a glittering launch, saying: "We are fortunate in France to benefit from an extraordinary amount of expertise that we will exploit to the full. We will work with Multiplast, based in Vannes in the Morbihan region, CDK, based in Lorient and Port-La-Forêt, as well as numerous subcontractors. Some of these shipyards also work with Chantiers de l’Atlantique on the Orient Express Silenseas project. Working with several entities allows us to save time. Construction of our AC75 will start in April and will be completed in spring 2024.”

What was delivered to Barcelona in a ‘convoi exceptionnel’ after a five-day road trip from northern France, was pure French class. A midnight blue hull with tints of saffron and black beneath a sailor-requested white deck was stunning and a testament to the 46,000 man-hours put in by some 65 boat-builders. The lines were an exact match by the eye to the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand’s ‘Taihoro,’ and there was much excitement.

Dubois explained what happened next: “As soon as we arrived on April 6, the hydraulics, electricity and mechatronics departments took over the boat to install the cables, batteries, rams and other systems. This precision job took almost seven weeks. Our AC75 is equipped with over 200 sensors that had to be installed, the sensors that send data back to shore or to the coach boat. These are essential performance tools.”

A maiden flight on the June 7, 2024 started an intense Barcelona summer of training for the team who were always fighting the clock. Their commitment was remarkable, very often the first to dock-out but always the last to dock-in – sometimes after sundown – time on the water was everything and very much at a premium. The AC75 though is a complex conundrum to master that requires so much muscle memory and slick co-ordination that it was a hard ask for the French to bridge the gap to the established teams who had already spent many more hours in preparation for the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup.

As the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta got underway at the end of August, the French battled with their onboard electronic systems, particularly in the starting box, had a Foil Cant System breakdown that stopped them sailing one day, scored a default win against NYYC American Magic, and had a fascinating tussle with INEOS Britannia on the final day. Green shoots of positivity were everywhere, with Orient Express showing a straight-line speed both upwind and downwind that was hard to match, and they began the Louis Vuitton Cup knowing that it was all about extracting the potential of the boat and sailing cleanly.

Ultimately, they finished off the pace in the Round Robins as the Challenger teams all stepped forward in terms of technology and technique but Kandler, reflected on the campaign with an eye to the future saying: “We needed another few more weeks – to learn the boat better, and in all departments – but I think we can be proud of what we have done. We started from scratch; we caught up but not enough. It's really disappointing, but at the same time I’m very proud of the team and the great effort we all put into it.

We are building a platform for the future, for sure. We know we have fantastic technology to work on for future campaigns, if as planned, the boat keeps on going in the America’s Cup. We are a sponsored team. We have no big private backer, so it is important for our sponsors to know where the Cup is going next. They were happy to come to Barcelona to support a young team. They know we are a good team with lots of potential, but we need to wait for the winner to decide when and where. We are still there for the Youth and Women’s America's Cup where we want to prove that France has a strong capacity to compete in those events.”

Bruno Dubois, reflected on the campaign saying: “I think overall we have done a good job. Stephan and I put this campaign together in a short time and I think in the end we were quite competitive. We've done some good things with this campaign, but we need more time, more money, more everything. The good news is that the team will stay together with a few projects we're going to work on to make sure the sailors, the technical team, everybody, will stay together. We have the base, we have the boat, so we are not starting from zero.”

Iain Murray, Race Director, gave a warm and encouraging send off to Orient Express Racing Team saying: “When I first came to the America’s Cup in 1982, the French were there with Bruno Troublé and Baron Bich and there's been a tremendous history since. 

Louis Vuitton has been there for all that time as well, so there's a very long French tradition and it’s super-important to see them come back and take it on in the modern world of foiling. It’s been great to see and it's so hard to get going in the America's Cup with the Catch-22 of starting, getting experience, getting the right design, becoming competitive. But they've done all that - they're here, they delivered, they're actually going pretty fast, but just haven't smoothed the rough edges off their campaign – whether it's mechanical or sailing.

“I hope all of this is a fantastic foundation for them in the future because we all love the French, and we would love to see the team back in the future.”

So it’s farewell to the 2024 French Challenge from the famous yacht club of the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez, but with a solid base of sponsors including the ACCOR Group, L’Oreal Groupe, Photomaton ME Group, Alpine and a whole host of Official Suppliers and Supporters, continuity into the 38th America’s Cup is hopefully a very real prospect.

With backing from the very highest offices in the land, including President Macron’s personal patronage, and with the team’s Youth and Women sailors very much looking forward to competition in the UniCredit Youth and Puig Women’s America’s Cup events here in Barcelona, the future is bright.

Kandler summed it up beautifully saying: "An America's Cup project in France is of course a sporting challenge, but it's also a technological challenge. We're committed to winning the world's oldest international sporting trophy with our Challenger, but also to helping develop the world of tomorrow.

"We are preparing both youth and female athletes for the competitions of the future, and we also want to make our contribution to the ecological transition of mobility. Competition, particularly the America's Cup, pushes us to be high-performance and creative in terms of technology; it's a laboratory and provides an extraordinary stimulus."

The Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup was a richer event for the participation of France’s Orient Express Racing Team. As they build for the future, this is a team to watch.

Au revoir? This feels much more like ‘À Bientôt.’

(Magnus Wheatley)